Discover y
on the Go
As lawyers embrace smartphones and tablets,
e-discovery vendors race to create mobile options
to manage and perform e-discovery tasks.
BY ALAN COHEN
PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT FURMAN
ANYONE IN 2013 WOULD BE HARD PRESSED TO NAME A TECHNOLOGY hotter than mobile. New devices — with bigger, better screens and
faster connections to the office or to the web — are hitting the market at a
head-spinning pace. For lawyers and their firms, tablet choices and capabilities, in particular, are growing at warp speed: Apple Inc.’s i Pad, an array
of Android-based devices, and Microsoft’s new Surface are all winning fans
with their laptop-like power. But when it comes to fundamental yet technically complex tasks, such as electronic data discovery, how, exactly, are legal
professionals using — or wanting to use — these mobile devices?
We know that legal professionals already use mobile devices to check
and send email; review documents and perform light editing or add annotations; research case law; store and call up transcripts, depositions, and
even trial materials. But as the power and popularity of tablets grow, the
question arises: Can mobile devices be a vehicle for core EDD tasks? It’s a
question of paramount importance not just to attorneys, but to the vendors
who make the products.
